JOE BIDEN'S OFFICE TARGETED IN FAKE ANTHRAX ATTACK

By Celia Cohen
Grapevine Political Writer

A powder raising an anthrax alarm was mailed last
month to the Wilmington office of U.S. Sen. Joseph R.
Biden Jr. in a scare that forced the staff to evacuate
for more than three hours but otherwise did no harm.

An envelope containing the powder and a threatening
letter was opened Oct. 23 by staff assistants, bringing
the Wilmington police, the FBI and the Delaware
Department of Natural Resources & Environmental Control
to the office.

The material was tested and turned out to be a
detergent called digitonin, so the staff went back to
work in the quarters on Market Street near Rodney
Square, and the FBI took charge of the investigation,
which is continuing.

"It was relatively minor, but we took it seriously,"
said Margaret Aitken, press secretary to Biden, a
six-term Democrat who will chair the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee in the next congressional term.

The envelope did not have a return address, Aitken
said, and she did not know what was written in the
letter.

The incident first was reported in a recent edition
of Roll Call, a newspaper that covers Capitol Hill. It
coincided with a number of other bogus anthrax mailings
to celebrities and leading Democrats.

A California man was arrested earlier this month on
charges of sending baking soda, laundry detergent,
scouring agents and other white powders over two months
to such people as David Letterman of CBS's "Late Show,"
Jon Stewart of Comedy Central, incoming Speaker Nancy
Pelosi and U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, according to Roll
Call.

The envelope sent to Biden is not part of the
California case, the newspaper said, but it is being
investigated in conjunction with another anthrax hoax at
the Harlem office of former President Bill Clinton on
Oct. 27, four days after the incident involving Biden's
staff.

Mail to congressional offices in Washington routinely
has been irradiated since letters containing anthrax
were sent to two senators in October 2001, about a month
after the terrorist attacks on September 11. The letters
were part of a wave of mailings that also went to media
outlets and left five people dead from the bacteria,
which can be fatal if ingested or inhaled.

Mail sent to members of Congress in their home
states, however, is not subject to the same screening,
although Biden's staff has arranged for irradiation for
anything going to either of the senator's Delaware
offices in Wilmington or Milford since the incident.

The rest of the Delaware delegation -- Democratic
Sen. Thomas R. Carper and Republican Rep. Michael N.
Castle -- have not changed the procedures for mail
coming into the state.

The threat is regarded as low with most constituent
mail going to the Washington offices and with the safety
precautions put in place by the U.S. Postal Service,
according to Bill Ghent, the communications director for
Carper, and Elizabeth B. Wenk, the deputy chief of staff
for Castle.

Furthermore, almost all of the correspondence these
days is anthrax-proof. "E-mail, phone, fax," Wenk said.